° *i9i9 J General Notes. 561 



some time, but finally did so some distance away; and as I knew I could 

 " sneak upon them " for observation at that particular place, I did so. 

 As I cautiously looked around a corner of button-bushes, there they sat in 

 the floating duck-weed, heads up and ready to jump on the instant, while 

 surrounding them, unconcernedly feeding, were seven young Wood Duck, 

 another species which breeds regularly in the wooded swamp between the 

 two localities mentioned. The young Blacks are very tame up to the 

 time of the hunting season, and I have thrown green apples at one in open 

 water without being able to make it fly, although the water all but splashed 

 the bird. This seems strange considering the extreme wariness of the adult 

 bird. — E. A. Doolittle, PainesviUe, Ohio. 



Ruddy Shelldrake on the Atlantic Coast. — Casarca ferruginea has 

 been taken in Greenland but not in the United States, so far as I know, 

 until recently. A specimen was captured at Barnegat Bay in 1916 

 by Mr. W. H. Eddy, of Darby, Pa., and was identified by the editor of 

 'The Auk,' who, on general principles, was disposed to regard it as an 

 escaped bird. Whether this was true or not we cannot know. It appears 

 that the bird is not very uncommon in captivity, for Mr. Lee S. Crandall, 

 Curator of Birds at the N. Y. Zoological Park, tells me that they have 

 specimens there, and that the species has been bred on at least two occasions 

 by Mr. William Bronwin, of Rye, N. Y. 



On the other hand, a reported capture of this species on Currituck Sound 

 in North Carolina has been current there for many years. This occurrence 

 was related to me by Mr. W. L. McAtee, of the Biological Survey, but as 

 the specimens were not preserved it did not seem best to note the incident 

 until a specimen actually killed in the United States could be recorded. 

 Mr. Eddy has furnished this specimen. 



The reported North Carolina capture took place at a shooting resort kept 

 by Jasper White near what is now known as Water Lily Post Office, Curri- 

 tuck County, N. C. Jasper B. White, the son of the man who kept the 

 resort, was then a young man. A Mr. Fred Simonds, of Reading, England , 

 in company with his uncle, had come to Currituck Sound for the shooting 

 and was staying with J. B. White's father. The two young men were shoot- 

 ing together one day when a flock of five ducks came to them, of which three 

 were shot. These birds were new to J. B. White, but Fred Simonds recog- 

 nized them and told White that they were Ruddy Shelldrakes. Later, 

 after he had returned to England, Mr. Simonds sent White a copy of 

 ' British Game Birds and Water Fowl,' with colored plates, by Beverly R. 

 Morris, and a letter received at the same time told White that the birds 

 they had shot were figured in the book, and the plate of the Ruddy Shell- 

 drake was at once recognized. 



Mr. Jasper B. White writes me that the birds taken in Mr. Simonds' 

 company were killed in 1886. He adds that he has seen birds of this 

 species several times since then, and that they always appear in very cold 

 weather. For some time he has been endeavoring to collect specimens for 



